Seems like we have court precedents for the idea that you can't charge a guy with illegal possession of the tool he was forced to use to defend himself when the only reason you know he had it was the DGU. I don't recall the specifics, it might have something to do with requiring him to report the felony he was a victim of, and disallowing incriminating evidence resulting from that.
It was the prosecutor's job to not charge the crime victim, and the captain's job to see the prosecutor knew everything. However, when you know the prosecutor is not interested in justice, I can see the temptation to circumvent the prosecutor.
I'd say the Captain's decision to release the prisoner was 100% right. The decision to scrub information may have been motivated by desire to serve the Constitution over the statute, but it was still destruction of evidence. I can accept the Commission's ruling that it didn't merit more than a notation in his personnel file.
ReplyDeleteSeems like we have court precedents for the idea that you can't charge a guy with illegal possession of the tool he was forced to use to defend himself when the only reason you know he had it was the DGU. I don't recall the specifics, it might have something to do with requiring him to report the felony he was a victim of, and disallowing incriminating evidence resulting from that.
It was the prosecutor's job to not charge the crime victim, and the captain's job to see the prosecutor knew everything. However, when you know the prosecutor is not interested in justice, I can see the temptation to circumvent the prosecutor.
I'd say the Captain's decision to release the prisoner was 100% right.
The decision to scrub information may have been motivated by desire to serve the Constitution over the statute, but it was still destruction of evidence. I can accept the Commission's ruling that it didn't merit more than a notation in his personnel file.